


School Daze

by HeyGoodLookin



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Classroom, El's obsessed with Mike's freckles, Gen, Kids, Summer, also mike is in awe of El, and it's so adorable, dustin has the hugest crush ever, highschool, i don't care, it's cute, poor hopper, yes I know that's used a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 06:56:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14929371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyGoodLookin/pseuds/HeyGoodLookin
Summary: Hopper finds himself playing teacher to a room full of teenagers.Lots of banter, frustrated Hopper, and fluff.Story involves my OC, June, from my other story "You're Something Else".This one shot will still make sense if you haven't read my other story.





	School Daze

**Author's Note:**

> HEY it's me. I'm back. Here's a one shot for y'all.  
> Hope you like it and let me know what you think!
> 
> I'm gonna write more one shots (hopefully) really soon! I've got some ideas.

“Right,” Hopper stood in front of the group of teenagers. Through a lot of begging and pleading, and sympathetic glances from Joyce, the chief had been pressured into conducting a rehearsal school day. The idea was that between him, Joyce, and the party, El would get a taste of what real school would be like. And since she would be starting school as a freshman in a few days, well, it seemed like a good idea. At least until the chief found himself standing in front of a room full of teenagers. They had made a make-shift row of chairs for desks and a big piece of cardboard paper for the blackboard. “You kids all settled?” Hopper looked down at his clipboard. “Okay, I’ll take attendance.” 

The chief was about to read out the first name when the cabin door opened and Dustin rushed in with a girl he’d only met a handful of times. 

“Sorry, chief!” Dustin panted, letting go of the girls’ hand. “Won’t happen again.”

Hopper’s eyes narrowed and fixated on the girl sitting down next to Dustin. 

“You know June, right honey?” Joyce put a hand on Hopper’s shoulder to calm him. “June Graham?”

“Yeah, I know her,” Hopper muttered, still not convinced. “I’d love to know how she found out about this place.”

“I told her,” Dustin piped up before June could say a word. “She’s part of the party now.”

“And she’s my friend,” El added brightly, smiling at June. They’d only met a few weeks ago, but had become fast friends. 

June glanced up at Hopper, wringing her hands anxiously. “I can leave, if you want, sir. I understand.”

Hopper’s expression softened at this. Yeah, he’d heard of Angela Graham, June’s mother, a raging alcoholic who, by the looks of the bruises on June’s wrist, was a real piece of work. “Don’t worry about it,” Hopper assured the girl. “If El trusts you, I trust you.”

“Thanks,” June smiled up at the police chief. 

“Right, well, first lesson you should learn, El, is that you don’t show up late for class,” Hopper directed the sentence at Dustin, before continuing. “The first thing your teacher will do is take attendance. That means, he or she is going to call out names and you say ‘here’ when your name is called, okay?” 

“Okay,” El answered excitedly, fidgeting in her seat. 

“Lucas Sinclair?”

“Here,” Lucas mumbled, his focus more on Max than Hopper. 

“Michael Wheeler?”

“It’s Mike,” the boy quipped, drumming his pencil on his book. “Nobody calls me Michael accept for my Mom.”

“Jesus Christ,” Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Hey!” Dustin exclaimed, “the teacher’s not allowed to swear!”

“I’m not your teacher.”

“Well you are now!” Dustin replied, taking out his notebook. 

Hopper glared at the teenage boy for a second before continuing. “Steve Harrington?”

“Here,” Steve chuckled, throwing a crumpled up piece of paper at the blackboard. How he got coerced into doing this, he had no idea. So if he was going to do it, he figured he may as well have some fun. “Hey teacher?”

“Yes?” Hopper practically groaned. 

“You gonna teach us something soon?”

“Shut up, Harrington. Will Byers?”

“Here,” Will answered with a chuckle. He had just given El a cartoon sketch of Hopper dressed as a teacher with smoke coming out of his ears. 

“Jane Hopper?” 

The room fell silent. 

“Here!” El replied brightly, smiling up at her father. Hopper couldn’t help but smile back. 

“Dustin Henderson?”

“Yes m’lord.”

“You say ‘here’,” Hopper groaned as he heard Joyce giggle from the kitchen. She was getting a real kick out of this. 

Dustin rolled his eyes. “Son of a bitch,” he cursed under his breath. “Mr. Clark didn’t always make us say ‘here’.” 

“Well I am.” 

“Fine,” Dustin huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Herrrrre,” he rolled his R, prompting June to laugh. 

“Hey!” El piped up before Hopper could continue on. “How come Dustin is allowed to swear?”

Hopper groaned again and ran a hand through his hair. “Because Dustin’s being a little shit, that’s why.” 

“Say it like it is, chief!” Steve said, popping his gum loudly. 

“Sir?” June looked up from the sheet music she was studying. “You forgot about me.”

“God damn it.”

“Now _you’re_ swearing again!” Dustin couldn’t help but laugh when both El and June giggled. 

“Okay!” Hopper slammed his clip board down on the coffee table. “Are you kids really this annoying in school?”

“I was worse,” Steve mumbled, honestly. He had been. 

“Jesus. Okay, well, let’s get started then,” Hopper looked at El. “After your teacher takes attendance, they’ll teach their first lesson. That changes depending on what class you have. Sometimes you’ll have to change rooms— depends on the subject— and sometimes, if it’s a different teacher, they’ll take attendance again.”

“I know. I’ll get a timetable,” El replied swiftly, making Mike smile with pride. He’d tried to explain everything as best as he could before hand. 

“Right,” Hopper gathered himself together. “We’re gonna make like this is a history class so everyone turn to page forty-five. We’ll read about— uh— the romantic era. So there’s a picture of a guy there. Does anyone know who that is?”

“It’s Beethoven,” Dustin replied quickly. 

“Yeah,” Hopper’s eyes narrowed again in frustration. “Normally, you’d put your hand up first, El, but some kids don’t like doing that.”

“Who’s Beethoven?” El ignored the chief’s comment and turned to face Dustin. 

“He was a composer,” Dustin answered eagerly. 

“What’s a composer?”

“It’s somebody who wrote music,” Mike explained, smiling at El’s eagerness. “But a long time ago.”

“So Beethoven was the best? Because his picture is in the book?”

June looked down at the grumpy painting and then back up at El. “Not really.”

“Can we get back to—“

“Who was the best?” El interrupted her father. She was far too curious about June’s obvious passion. The way her eye’s lit up; it made El so happy. 

“A lot of people will tell you Bach was the best—“

“Because he was,” Mike cut June off mid-sentence. 

“Shut it, Wheeler,” June grinned back at him. “ _Anyway,_ I think Schubert was totally the best. He was a school teacher at first, ‘cause his dad was a headmaster and was super strict and controlling. Schubert left teaching when he was eighteen and went to live with a bunch of poets and singers— totally bad-ass and bohemian— and wrote these two amazing pieces, Girl at the Spinning Wheel and the Witch King. He was, like, eighteen too. Which always makes me feel totally lame ‘cause I’m only four years younger than that and I haven’t written a note.” 

El watched with fascination as June spoke. “How come you know so much about Sch-u-bert?” She sounded out the name slowly. 

June grinned at her new friend. “He’s my favourite. And ‘cause he’s the best composer ever.” 

“I mean, he’s pretty awesome,” Will added. “But Brahms is totally better though.”

“Brahms?” June whipped around in her seat. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Okay!” Hopper shouted, closing the history text book in frustration. “Let’s just make like you guys had a history class.”

“But—“

“But nothing, Wheeler. You read about the romantic era, learned about how everyone had a lot of feelings and started being more emotional because of some novel…” Hopper flipper open the text book again. “…The Sorrows of Young Werther… and because of the storm and stress movement from Germany.”

El opened her book and then closed it again, raising her hand. “And Keats!” 

“What?”

“John Keats. Poet. Wrote lots of love poems. Read some yesterday,” El said, her smile traveling to her eyes as she glanced over at Mike. “Love is my religion. I could die for that.”

Mike’s eyes widened at her words as he turned bright red. _She’s quoting poetry for me._ “Wow,” his voice broke slightly as he spoke. “Did you read this whole chapter?”

“And the next one,” El answered brightly. “I like Edward Allen Poe too.”

“It’s Edgar,” Mike corrected carefully, still smiling. “Edgar Allen Poe. He’s kinda creepy, though. He wrote this really cool story called The Tell Tale Heart.” 

“I tried to read that,” El face fell ever so slightly. “But it was too hard. So was Oliver Twist.”

“Oh man!” Will’s face lit up in an attempt at cheering her up. “Oliver Twist is the best! Have you seen the movie version? It’s a musical.”

El furrowed her brow in confusion. “What’s a musical?”

“It’s when people sing and dance at the same time,” Lucas explained simply. “Erica’s taking classes now and she won’t shut up about it.”

“Singing and dancing…” El repeated the words carefully. “So like Grease?”

“Yeah!” Mike responded enthusiastically. “Exactly like that! If you like Grease, you’d probably like Oliver too. My mom was in the musical when she was in high school.” Mike’s expression changed at the mention of his mother. Things were getting increasingly difficult for him at home and any mention of his parents, no matter how slight, somehow effected him. 

Noticing this, El looked up at Hopper. “Were you in the musical? You’re old too. Like Mrs. Wheeler. Only she’s pretty and you’re—“

“A silver fox,” Dustin finished, trying to hold back laughter. 

“A silver _what?—_ God damn it, kid…” the chief turned around to face the makeshift blackboard. On it he wrote: DETENTION- Dustin Henderson. 

“De-ten-sion…” El sounded out the word. “Word of the day?”

Hopper chuckled at this. “Sure, kid. Detention. It’s a kind of punishment they hand out in school when you’re rude or annoying,” he narrowed his eyes at Dustin, who was too engrossed in June’s giggling to care. 

“Punishment?” El recognized the word from the lab. It sent a chill up her spine. 

Hopper realized his error in word choice and back-pedalled as best as he could. “It’s not horrible. Just, unpleasant. Like sitting in a class and writing out the same sentence over and over again. Or having to write an essay about manners. Stuff like that.”

“Teachers won’t hurt you?” El’s words felt like a punch to Mike’s gut. He hated that she had such horrifying fears. Completely realistic and justified fears. Because they were fears based on the nightmare that had been her life. 

“Teachers are amazing, El. You know Mr. Clark, right? Well, he’s coming to teach high school next year. He’s a teacher and he’s the best. Nancy told me most of the teachers are really awesome. Some of them give way too much homework but none of them,” he looked directly into El’s eyes, “ _none of them_ will ever hurt you. They can’t. It’s against the law.” 

“Then t _hey_ get punished,” said El.

“If they hurt someone, yeah,” Hopper said, nodding at Mike in appreciation. The kid somehow always knew what to say. 

There was a moment of silence as El digested the new information.

“Someone hurts June,” she said in a small voice. 

“What?” Hopper whipped around and stared at El. “Where’d you get that information from? Also, you remember the word ‘private’ right?”

El nodded. “Something you don’t share.”

“Right, well, that kind of information is private. At least for June it probably is,” he looked over at the newest member of the party. “I’m sorry, kid.”

“It’s cool,” June hated how everyone was looking at her now. Especially Dustin, all wide eyed and concerned. She tried to tug the sleeves of her shirt over her wrists again. Somehow they’d slid up during the course of the day. “Don’t worry about it, El.”

El looked at her new friend and frowned. “Not cool. I’m sorry, June.” She paused before continuing. “Somebody who hurts people should be punished, though. Right, dad?” 

Being called ‘dad’ still felt pretty new to Hopper and despite the sad circumstances, hearing El say it, brought a small smile to his face. “Right,” he responded firmly. “But I don’t think June wants to talk about this right now.”

“But I want to help. You can help.”

“I will, kid,” Hopper assured the girl. 

June glanced up at the chief and shrugged her shoulders as a hot tear ran down her cheek. “It’s fine, sir. These are old anyway,” she held out her wrist ever so slightly. “I’ve got it under control.” 

Will watched as June brushed at her eyes hurriedly. “You can stay with us anytime,” he offered, voice low and soothing. “Honestly. My mom’s totally cool about stuff like that.”

“She is,” Hopper assured June, nodding. Joyce had long gone to buy a few snacks for the group, but the chief knew, had she been with them, she would have been the first to offer June a place to stay. 

“I’m fine,” June replied softly, overwhelmed at the sheer amount of love she was feeling. “But thanks anyway. An El?”

El looked at her friend. “Yes?”

“Thanks for caring. You’re really amazing. I hope you know that.” 

“Thank you,” El’s eyes lit up. “You’re amazing too. I’m happy you’re…with Dustin,” El wasn’t sure what the relationship between June and Dustin was. She wasn’t sure if it had a word. She saw that Dustin helped June and that she made him smile and laugh. Whatever was between them, she was happy for them. 

Dustin face turned bright red at El’s words. He looked at June and grinned in spite of himself. “Yeah, you’re kinda really beaut—“ he stopped abruptly as he realized what he was saying. Blushing, he ran a hand through his curls and placed his hat back on his head. “Like El said, you’re amazing. Totally awesome.”

“Oh my God,” Steve stared at the kids in disbelief. “You guys are killing me here. You got any beer in the fridge, chief?” 

Hopper nodded his head and put both the text book and clip board down. “Yeah. Bring me one too.”

“You can only have one,” El chirped, grinning. “Joyce said you’re getting a beer belly and that you should… cut back,” she tried to remember Joyce’s words exactly. 

“Oh for Christ’s sake,” Hopper pinched the bridge of his nose. “Joyce said that to you?”

“No, I heard her say that to you yesterday. I was outside with Mike. Window was open.” 

“Right,” he rolled his eyes as a chuckling Steve handed him a beer. “You know that listening in on people’s conversations is rude, right?”

“Yeah,” El responded brightly, “But it’s still fun.”

“Okay, you know what?” Hopper opened his beer and sat down on the sofa, which had been moved aside to make room for the ‘classroom’. “Class dismissed. I’m done.”

“What about Dustin’s detention?” Mike couldn’t help but laugh. 

Hopper drank about half the beer in one sip. “Yeah, no. I’ve had about enough of you kids already today. How about this. The fence out back needs painting. Guess who’s job that is now?”

“Son of a bitch,” Dustin cursed. “Are you serious?”

“Completely,” Hopper couldn’t help but smile. 

“Hey,” June stood up with the rest of the party and walked over to Dustin. “No big deal. I’ll come help you.” 

“Seriously? You don’t have to. I know you probably have better things to do than hang out with me doing chores.” 

“Doesn’t matter. Gets me out of the house.” 

“Okay,” Dustin waited until Hopper was busy talking to Joyce, who had come in with pizza and chips, and the rest of the party was distracted. They hadn’t put a label on their relationship yet, but Dustin couldn’t help but put his arms around June. He felt his pulse race at the contact. “You really are awesome, you know.” He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. 

“I got the memo,” June smirked through her blush. “But thanks for reminding me. You awesome too.” 

“Paint buddies?” 

June laughed at Dustin and rested her head on his shoulder. “Paint buddies.” 

 

The party ate and chatted amongst themselves excitedly, mostly about school and how they were all taking similar core classes. They were busy choosing electives and took turns explaining them all to El. Dustin and June were going to take band while Mike and Will wanted to audition for choir. El, though it took some persuasion, decided auditioning for the school musical with Max would be fun. 

The party had started to gather their things together when Max looked around.

“Hey,” she approached June cautiously. “I know we haven’t really got to know each other all that much, but I wanna say, about your mom…” Max pulled June aside lightly and continued. “I know you don’t wanna talk about it, but my brother used to be the same way. My step dad too. It took me a while, but in the end Lucas convinced me to talk to Hopper. It was hard, but I’m glad I did it.”

June took a deep breath and swallowed back the fresh on-slot of tears that wanted to escape. “What did Hopper do?”

“He scared the shit outta my brother. And threatened my step dad like you wouldn’t believe. I mean, sure, it’s still no where near perfect at home right now, but it’s a lot better. I’m not…scared anymore. At least not really.”

“I can’t,” June breathed again; low and slow like Dustin had taught her. “If I tell Hopper and he takes my mom away, I’d have nowhere to go. I’m not going to no group home or whatever.”

Max frowned, understanding June’s situation with painful clarity. “Shit,” she sighed, running a hand through her red hair. “Look, maybe somebody would be able to take you in.”

“I don’t want to be a charity case,” June mumbled, though she made it sound like there was no room for discussion. 

“I get that, June, but I understand what you’re going through. I get how hard it is. You’re trying to go through it alone and it— it really sucks, okay? And it doesn’t have to. You can lean on us and talk to us any time you need or want to. That’s why we got those super coms. Dustin gave you one, right?”

“Last week, yeah.”

“Awesome. So you can talk to us. And if it ever get’s too much, you can let us know and we’ll help you.” 

“I know,” June nodded in understanding. She got along well with Max— they had the same no-bullshit attitude. 

 

Across the room, Mike held El’s hands and smiled. “I’m really proud of you, you know that, right?” 

“I know,” El smiled back, face turning pink as he stroked her hands with his thumbs. 

“You’re so smart and kind.”

“Not smart enough,” El frowned slightly. “Can’t read Oliver Twist. Will’s read it.”

“Hey,” Mike dropped her hands so he could cup her face with his own. “We’ve all been reading a hell of a lot longer than you have. You’ve only been reading for a year. Plus Charles Dickens is really hard. It’s old.”

“Like Shakespeare?”

Mike pressed a feather light kiss to her cheek. “Not that old.  Dickens is, like, eighteen hundreds, old.”

“So like what we were supposed to read. The romantic era,” El remembered the dates she had read at the beginning of the chapter. 

“Exactly,” Mike smiled. “See? You remembered something you only read one. You’re really smart, El. Just because you didn’t get to learn like the rest of us, doesn’t mean you’re any less smart.”

“Really?” El shuffled closer to him so their noses were practically touching. 

“Really.”

“Mike?”

“Hmm?” Mike stared into her eyes, transfixed. 

“You have three freckles more than yesterday.”

Mike blushed crimson. “Yeah,” he chuckled under his breath. “I get more when the sun’s out.”

“Still pretty,” El murmured, touching one of the new freckles lightly. 

And then Mike couldn’t take it anymore. He knew Hopper was only a few meters away. He knew the party would tease him later. But he didn’t care. He kissed El tenderly, his hands going from her face to her hair. 

El smiled into the kiss and clutched his T-shirt in fists as Mike deepened the kiss ever so slightly. Goosebumps erupted on El’s skin and she was about to move her hands when Hopper stopped talking to Joyce abruptly. 

“Hey!” he called over to the pair. “What did I say, Wheeler?”

Mike jumped and separated from El, a blush creeping to his face again. “No less than two feet, sir.”

“Yeah,” Hopper kept his eyes on Mike. “That didn’t look like two feet.”

“Sorry sir,” Mike mumbled as Joyce put a hand on Hopper’s arm, directing his focus back to her. “It won’t happen again, sir.”

El stared up at Mike and grinned. “Don’t lie. It will happen again. Soon, I hope.”

“Maybe not while your dad’s only three meters away,” Mike took her hand in his again. 

“Don’t worry,” El put her head on Mike’s shoulder. “Hop just put on his grumpy pants today, that’s all.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> THANK U <3


End file.
